Blasphemy

Blasphemy by Douglas Preston

So in my infinite wisdom and because I failed to read the dust cover I’ve managed to read both of Preston’s books that feature his new character Wyman Ford out of order. Though in hindsight it might be best that I read Impact before Blasphemy, or I might never have picked the second novel up. How is that for starting a review ominously?

The story here is that Wyman Ford is hired by a contact in Washington to see what is happening out at a scientific station in Red Mesa Arizona. There is a supercollider out there that is running tests to try and recreate what happened at the moment of the big bang. But for some reason things aren’t working out and the scientists aren’t being very upfront about it. So Ford is sent in undercover to investigate. After arriving he gets sucked into a large conspiracy involving a supposed piece of malware that is sabotaging the machine every time it gets near 100%, which is when the experiment would take place. Then again they assume it is a piece of malware, because if not then they have discovered God, who keeps trying to talk to them! All while this is happening a vast right wing religious conspiracy is taking place to pull their funding. But when the followers, or at least one overzealous pastor, decides it is Armageddon things take a very nasty turn.

Not to toot my own horn here, but if I read that synopsis I would be interested in checking out the book. Do yourself a favor and don’t. Until the last 50 pages or so the story is very tedious and slow. You have page after page of either the scientists bitching at each other or sitting in a lab running tests and asking theoretical questions to God. The only part of the book that I found the least interesting was the big chase scene at the end, and by then it was sort of too late to save the book.

Now I suppose in an effort to liven things up Preston decided to add the fundamental Christian characters into the novel for some spice. Now before I go any further I honestly wasn’t offended by the content of the book. That said it is pretty obvious that Preston has an axe to grind against organized religion, or at least conservative Christians. He has not one, but two main characters that are really nasty stereotypes. You have Spates, who is a televangelist with a nasty history with working girls that sees his chance to make some money in donations by attacking the project. Then you have a real loser named Eddy who is eager to kill in the name of God. These are the villains of the book and cause all the problems. But neither of them are really fleshed out at all as characters and to me Preston comes across as kind of lazy to fall back on these sorts of characters as his antagonists. Your book is only as good as both your protagonists and antagonists, here ½ that equation is very weak.

Now if I am to be honest with both you the reader and myself if the central story was a bit stronger then I probably wouldn’t have been annoyed so much by some of the one sided shots that Preston takes at religion. But that story is so weak that I can’t help but dwell on it. Also I’m all for people having their own opinions (hell I’m writing a review here aren’t I?). But at the end of the day you are writing a novel that you want to sell to readers. This isn’t an opinion piece for a newspaper or magazine, but a work of fiction. And I suppose when I said that I wasn’t offended by the book I might have been wrong. To me it seems that the normally solid Preston spent so much time and thought on making his point about religion that the narrative and characters suffered. That right there offends me. Obviously I’m not going to recommend this book. Though the follow up with the Wyman Ford character, called Impact, is a much better read.

reviewed by John Shatzer